An Antarctic Mystery

No doubt the following narrative will be received: with entire
incredulity, but I think it well that the public should be put in
possession of the facts narrated in "An Antarctic Mystery." The
public is free to believe them or not, at its good pleasure.

No more appropriate scene for the wonderful and terrible adventures
which I am about to relate could be imagined than the Desolation
Islands, so called, in 1779, by Captain Cook. I lived there for
several weeks, and I can affirm, on the evidence of my own eyes and
my own experience, that the famous English explorer and navigator
was happily inspired when he gave the islands that significant name.

Geographical nomenclature, however, insists on the name of
Kerguelen, which is generally adopted for the group which lies in
49° 45' south latitude, and 69° 6' east longitude. This is
just, because in 1772, Baron Kerguelen, a Frenchman, was the first
to discover those islands in the southern part of the Indian Ocean.
Indeed, the commander of the squadron on that voyage believed that
he had found a new continent on the limit of the Antarctic seas, but
in the course of a second expedition he recognized his error. There
was only an archipelago. I may be believed when I assert that
Desolation Islands is the only suitable name for this group of three
hundred isles or islets in the midst of the vast expanse of ocean,
which is constantly disturbed by austral storms.

Nevertheless, the group is inhabited, and the number of Europeans
and Americans who formed the nucleus of the Kerguelen population at
the date of the 2nd of August, 1839, had been augmented for two
months past by a unit in my person. Just then I was waiting for an
opportunity of leaving the place, having completed the geological
and mineralogical studies which had brought me to the group in
general and to Christmas Harbour in particular.

Christmas Harbour belongs to the most important islet of the
archipelago, one that is about half as large as Corsica. It is safe,
and easy, and free of access. Your ship may ride securely at single
anchor in its waters, while the bay remains free from ice.

The Kerguelens possess hundreds of other fjords. Their coasts are
notched and ragged, especially in the parts between the north and
the south-east, where little islets abound. The soil, of volcanic
origin, is composed of quartz, mixed with a bluish stone. In summer
it is covered with green mosses, grey lichens, various hardy plants,
especially wild saxifrage. Only one edible plant grows there, a kind
of cabbage, not found anywhere else, and very bitter of flavour.
Great flocks of royal and other penguins people these islets,
finding good lodging on their rocky and mossy surface. These stupid
birds, in their yellow and white feathers, with their heads thrown
back and their wings like the sleeves of a monastic habit, look, at
a distance, like monks in single file walking in procession along
the beach.

The islands afford refuge to numbers of sea-calves, seals, and
sea-elephants. The taking of those amphibious animals either on land
or from the sea is profitable, and may lead to a trade which will
bring a large number of vessels into these waters.

On the day already mentioned, I was accosted while strolling on the
port by mine host of mine inn.

"Unless I am much mistaken, time is beginning to seem very long to
you, Mr. Jeorling?"

The speaker was a big tall American who kept the only inn on the
port.

"If you will not be offended, Mr. Atkins, I will acknowledge that
I do find it long."

"Of course I won't be offended. Am I not as well used to answers
of that kind as the rocks of the Cape to the rollers?"

"And you resist them equally well."

"Of course. From the day of your arrival at Christmas Harbour,
when you came to the Green Cormorant, I said to myself that in a
fortnight, if not in a week, you would have enough of it, and would
be sorry you had landed in the Kerguelens."

"No, indeed, Mr. Atkins; I never regret anything I have done."

"That's a good habit, sir."

"Besides, I have gained knowledge by observing curious things
here. I have crossed the rolling plains, covered with hard stringy
mosses, and I shall take away curious mineralogical and geological
specimens with me. I have gone sealing, and taken sea-calves with
your people. I have visited the rookeries where the penguin and the
albatross live together in good fellowship, and that was well worth
my while. You have given me now and again a dish of petrel, seasoned
by your own hand, and very acceptable when one has a fine healthy
appetite. I have found a friendly welcome at the Green Cormorant,
and I am very much obliged to you. But, if I am right in my
reckoning, it is two months since the Chilian twomaster
Penãs
set
me down at Christmas Harbour in mid-winter.

"And you want to get back to your own country, which is mine, Mr.
Jeorling; to return to Connecticut, to Providence, our capital."

"Doubtless, Mr. Atkins, for I have been a globe-trotter for close
upon three years. One must come to a stop and take root at some
time."

"Yes, and when one has taken root, one puts out branches."

"Just so, Mr. Atkins. However, as I have no relations living, it
is likely that I shall be the last of my line. I am not likely to
take a fancy for marrying at forty."

"Well, well, that is a matter of taste. Fifteen years ago I
settled down comfortably at Christmas Harbour with my Betsy; she has
presented me with ten children, who in their turn will present me
with grandchildren."

"You will not return to the old country?"

"What should I do there, Mr. Jeorling, and what could I ever have
done there? There was nothing before me but poverty. Here, on the
contrary, in these Islands of Desolation, where I have no reason to
feel desolate, ease and competence have come to me and mine!"

"No doubt, and I congratulate you, Mr. Atkins, for you are a happy
man. Nevertheless it is not impossible that the fancy may take you
some day—"

Mr. Arkins answered by a vigorous and convincing shake of the head.
It was very pleasant to hear this worthy American talk. He was
completely acclimatized on his archipelago, and to the conditions of
life there. He lived with his family as the penguins lived in their
rookeries. His wife was a "valiant" woman of the Scriptural
type, his sons were strong, hardy fellows, who did not know what
sickness meant. His business was prosperous. The Green Cormorant had
the custom of all the ships, whalers and others, that put in at
Kerguelen. Atkins supplied them with everything they required, and
no second inn existed at Christmas Harbour. His sons were
carpenters, sailmakers, and fishers, and they hunted the amphibians
in all the creeks during the hot season. In short, this was a family
of honest folk who fulfilled their destiny without much difficulty.

"Once more, Mr. Atkins, let me assure you," I resumed, "I am
delighted to have come to Kerguelen. I shall always remember the
islands kindly. Nevertheless, I should not be sorry to find myself
at sea again."

"Come, Mr. Jeorling, you must have a little patience," said the
philosopher, "you must not forget that the fine days will soon be
here. In five or six weeks—"

"Yes, and in the meantime, the hills and the plains, the rocks and
the shores will be covered thick with snow, and the sun will not
have strength to dispel the mists on the horizon."

"Now, there you are again, Mr. Jeorling! Why, the wild grass is
already peeping through the white sheet! Just look!"

"Yes, with a magnifying glass! Between ourselves, Arkins, could
you venture to pretend that your bays are not still ice-locked in
this month of August, which is the February of our northern
hemisphere?"

"I acknowledge that, Mr. Jeorling. But again I say have patience!
The winter has been mild this year. The ships will soon show up, in
the east or in the west, for the fishing season is near."

"May Heaven hear you, Atkins, and guide the
Halbrane
safely into
port."

"Captain Len Guy? Ah, he's a good sailor, although he's
English—there are good people everywhere—and he takes in his
supplies at the Green Cormorant."

"You think the
Halbrane
—"

"Will be signalled before a week, Mr. Jeorling, or, if not, it
will be because there is no longer a Captain Len Guy; and if there
is no longer a Captain Len Guy, it is because the
Halbrane
has sunk
in full sail between the Kerguelens and the Cape of Good Hope."

Thereupon Mr. Atkins walked away, with a scornful gesture,
indicating that such an eventuality was out of all probability.

My intention was to take my passage on board the
Halbrane
so soon as
she should come to her moorings in Christmas Harbour. After a rest
of six or seven days, she would set sail again for Tristan
d'Acunha, where she was to discharge her cargo of tin and copper.
I meant to stay in the island for a few weeks of the fine season,
and from thence set out for Connecticut. Nevertheless, I did not
fail to take into due account the share that belongs to chance in
human affairs, for it is wise, as Edgar Poe has said, always "to
reckon with the unforeseen, the unexpected, the inconceivable, which
have a very large share (in those affairs), and chance ought always
to be a matter of strict calculation."

Each day I walked about the port and its neighbourhood. The sun was
growing strong. The rocks were emerging by degrees from their winter
clothing of snow; moss of a wine-like colour was springing up on the
basalt cliffs, strips of seaweed fifty yards long were floating on
the sea, and on the plain the lyella, which is of Andean origin, was
pushing up its little points, and the only leguminous plant of the
region, that gigantic cabbage already mentioned, valuable for its
anti-scorbutic properties, was making its appearance.